Gentlemen, Be Seated!
"Gentlemen, Be Seated" is a science fiction short story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. It was first published in the May 1948 issue of Argosy magazine. It was later included in two of Heinlein's collections, The Green Hills of Earth (1951), and The Past Through Tomorrow (1967).
Plot summary
The story tells of a visit to a tunnel on the surface of the Moon which goes awry when a pressure seal fails, trapping three men (a supervisor, a reporter, and a tunnel worker). The title of the story derives from the way they plug an air leak while awaiting rescue: by sitting on it.
The phrase "Gentlemen, Be Seated!" is the opening line of the interlocutor in a traditional minstrel show. It was also, at the time the story was written and while Heinlein attended, the opening line for all classes at the military and naval academies (as well as classes for officers at the various service schools) in the United States.
The story might have been inspired by an episode in "Baron Munchausen": The ship sprung a leak. It was my good fortune to discover it first. I found it a large hole about a foot diameter. ... This noble vessel was preserved, with all its crew, by a most fortunate thought! in short, I sat down over it. ... My situation, while I sat there, was rather cool, but the carpenter's art soon relieved me.[1]
References
- ^ "The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen".
External links
- "Gentlemen, Be Seated!" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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- The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950)
- The Green Hills of Earth (1951)
- Revolt in 2100 (1953)
- Orphans of the Sky (1963)
- The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
- Methuselah's Children (1958)
- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966)
- Time Enough for Love (1973)
- The Number of the Beast (1980)
- The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)
- To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987)
- The Pursuit of the Pankera (2020)
stories
- "Life-Line"
- "Let There Be Light"
- "The Roads Must Roll"
- "Blowups Happen"
- "The Man Who Sold the Moon"
- "Delilah and the Space Rigger"
- "Space Jockey"
- "Requiem"
- "The Long Watch"
- "Gentlemen, Be Seated!"
- "The Black Pits of Luna"
- "It's Great to Be Back!"
- "—We Also Walk Dogs"
- "Searchlight"
- "Ordeal in Space"
- "The Green Hills of Earth"
- "Logic of Empire"
- "The Menace from Earth"
- "'If This Goes On—'"
- "Coventry"
- "Misfit"
- "Universe"
- "Common Sense"
- Lazarus Long
- Delos D. Harriman
- Jubal Harshaw
- Competent man
- Maureen Johnson
- Andrew Jackson Libby
- Hazel Stone
- The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein (1966)
- Expanded Universe (1980)
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